Hailee's Shiny New Smile

After only one short year, Hailee finally got her braces off in January. She had been chomping at the bit (pun intended) for months...not a very patient child. For some reason, Hailee did not get all of her permanent teeth...she is missing one of the really noticable teeth in the front. Her baby teeth had no reason to fall out since there was nothing pushing its way in, so they just sat there. The dentist pulled those two baby teeth and then the orthodontist pulled down the one existing permanent tooth that had not emerged yet and pushed it back into place. She now wears a retainer with an extra tooth in it to fill the gap until she is old enough to get an implant...another 3 years. Hailee does agree that suffering through the braces was worth the end result.

I've Been Tagged!

8's

8 Things I'm Passionate About
the Gospel
my family
agency
accountability
(I used to be passionate about a lot of things, but have since realized that there are very few things that are worth the energy)

8 Words or Phrases I use all the Time
Good Job!
Sevier County 4-H, this is Michele
Please get your chores done!
Onward and Upward
I'm on my way home.
Nobody falls into the Celestial Kingdom
Help me, Rhonda! (Thanks, Susie!)

8 Things I Want To Do Before I Die
Write a book
Finish my journals and life story
Learn Hebrew, Greek and Spanish (not in that order!)
Travel to the Basque Provinces of Spain
Serve a mission with Johnny
Take an Alaskan cruise and glass-domed train tour
Be sealed in the temple with my family (my parents and hopefully, my sisters)
See all of my children sealed in the temple

8 Things I Need Right Now
Lunch!
Christmas money
More energy
More time
More payroll hours (was just informed I have only 40 to last to the end of the year!)
Patience and understanding
Gratitude for all I have

8 Places I Want to Visit
Northern Provinces of Spain
Alaska
Washington State
New England in the autumn
Murua, Mexico
Ireland
Book of Mormon Ruins in Central and South America
New Mexico

8 Favorite Restaurants
El Mexicano
Cafe Rio
Pepper Belly's (but only for their Sweet Pork Salad!)
Joe Morley's
South China
Applebees
Greek Souvlaki
Whatever restaurant Renesa is working at!

8 Favorite TV Shows
This one is impossible. There aren't 8 shows on TV worth watching. I watch:
News
Selected programs on KBYU and BYU TV

8th folder 8th picture

Sing a New Song

When Fall sets in, the Visarraga family knows that it is time to begin preparing music for this year's family Christmas CD. In October, we all traveled to Salt Lake City to First Track, our favorite recording studio, to begin work on Noel, our 2008 production. This year we added something new: a song performed by the grandchildren. It was fun to work with them outside before we actually laid the song down in the studio. Only six of the grandchildren participated - Brinley, Leah, Creed, Kai (Shanna's four oldest) and then Lyndee's Sean (he had the song all memorized and is the one watching me in the photo) and Stetson, Renesa's oldest. The other three grands are still too young to help out in the music department!

Farewell to Childhood

All seven of my beautiful daughters have had gorgeous hair....and long! I have lived vicariously through them and have so enjoyed the wonderful styles we've been able to achieve. Well, OK, mostly they learned to achieve the beautiful styles....but I can throw together a mean Princess! (My girls know what this style is!) I have always really balked at letting the girls cut their hair and always told them "When you move out of the house, THEN you can cut your hair!" But my last, Brenna, has struggled with her hair for so many years. It is SOOOOOO thick and has such texture that it tangles like velcro. Shower-time became a real ordeal, often taking nearly 35 minutes just to get all that hair washed, rinsed, conditioned and rinsed again. And then, after all that, she often emerged with unclean hair anyway, due to shampoo or conditioner that she just could not get rinsed out. And so, we made the plunge.....oh heck, I made the plunge. She's been ready to do this for years! We drove up to Shanna's house and had her cut Brenna's hair. I could not watch, but sat in the livingroom, while Shanna snipped away my last baby's childhood in the kitchen.

It instantly added five years to Brenna's age! But, even though it was really hard for me to accept, it was well worth it. Brenna LOVES it and it has made life so much easier for her. I suppose I will get used to it with time. But for the first few days, every time she walked into the room, I'd do a double-take, caught off-guard by her loveliness and her sudden maturity.

Parent Teacher Conferences...One Eternal Round!

Today I attended Parent Teacher Conference at the Middle School with Brenna. As with all of the girls, this is a no brainer. They are always wonderful students - respectful, hard-working, focused and achievers. But this conference was just a little different. Brenna and I had been at the school for about 15 minutes when I looked down the hall and saw Shanna, who was there for Brinley's parent teacher conference meetings. She wandered down the hall and we stood, visiting, for a few minutes. And I was struck by how weird this really is....me - there at school with my youngest daughter; checking on her progress, shaping her and molding her into responsible adulthood - and my eldest daughter, there also, doing the exact same things for her daughter. It was a very interesting mix of emotions.